At first sight, MyPaint gives the impression that is a robust, well-designed and complex graphic editor that would make anyone appreciate it. Even more so, the fact that it is an open-source program makes you think that you have finally found “the perfect” graphic tool. But, after 15 minutes of testing it, the first impression vanishes instantly.
MyPaint is indeed a professional program that comes with a large number of tools which might be highly appreciated by graphic editors. But at the same time, this piece of software has its major flaws. I tested it on multiple computers, and every single time, it stopped responding after a while. It provides a quite large number of interesting brushes, yet it’s disappointing that you need to click an icon up to 4 times in order to select the desired brush. That also goes for opening the application menu.
MyPaint focuses on offering a large variety of settings for each brush, filter, layer or any other tool that it offers, and as far as I’m able to tell, they seem to work properly. Moreover, an interesting tool that I enjoyed is the Scratchpad. It is a small window that lets you test your brushes after customizing them. If you’re happy with the results, you can proceed to the working area.
Considering that MyPaint is still in early stages of development, I’m confident that it will become a great competitor for similar commercial applications.
v0.9.1 [Oct 15, 2010]
Several problems with non-ASCII file names, directory names, and layer names have been fixed, as well as a number of other minor issues. Integration with the Windows platform has been improved.
Users can import and export brushes. This feature was developed mainly by Ilya Portnov.
One can now shows/hide all sub-windows with a key shortcut and there is a key for showing the menu at the cursor.
New preferences have been added; you can now set the default zoom level/resolution, and the default save format. The color history popup bound to the secondary stylus button can also be disabled.
You can now save thumbnails for OpenRaster files according to the freedesktop.org specification.
Design, edit, and print your own CD, DVD, and Blu-ray disc and case labels
